Pop vs. Soda vs. Methodology
September 23, 2010 3 Comments
This map which shows what term people in different parts of the country use to refer to soft drinks is really cool:
That said, while I think it gets at some basic truths in regional variation, e.g., Midwesterners really do mostly use “pop” and Southerners are the ones most like to use “coke” it does not entirely jibe with my experience. Here’s the methodology:
The primary source of data for this study will be submissions from readers of this web page. Obviously, this may not be a completely random sampling, but since the primary objective of the study is to map the regional distribution and not the population distribution per response, this sample should suffice. Also, since a large percentage of internet users are college students who may use dialects not local to their current place of residence, this survey asks for the respondent’s “home town” and the beverage term used by most of the population there.
Given my experiences, I suspect the survey respondents played up their regional differences. Whereas people in Wake county, NC or Lubbock county, TX are certainly more likely to use “coke” than the “pop” drinkers of Franklin county, OH, there’s no way it is the majority term as the map indicates. You can also click through to the data and see that there’s a small N problem for most counties. Anyway, it’s still cool.
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